Skip to main content

2019 | Buch

Hydrocarbon Potential in Southeastern United States

A Review

insite
SUCHEN

Über dieses Buch

With respect to the vital work of maintaining and increasing much needed petroleum reserves within the continental United States, the Southeast is intriguing because it has been under-explored for many years at the expense of far more promising areas such as the Gulf Coast. While critics may contend that the overall geology of the Southeastern United States is unfavorable for commercial accumulations of hydrocarbons, the occurrence of the oil seeps in Georgia and the oil and gas shows reported in wells drilled in North Carolina, suggests otherwise. This volume introduces new evidence and compiles and re-examines data which argues for increased oil and gas exploration in the region.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
The southeastern United States as defined by the author includes the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and extends south through the Florida peninsula. The relevance of the states bordering the area will also be discussed. The region is currently lacking significant oil and gas production except for far western Virginia, the panhandle of Florida and far southern Florida near the Everglades. Documented oil and gas shows and evidence of hydrocarbon existence have been reported in notable wells drilled in all of the areas. Small oil seeps reaching the surface have been observed in central Georgia dating back to the first settlements of the eighteenth century and were probably observed earlier before the reported and local newspaper documented discovery in the early part of the twentieth century in 1919.
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 2. Geology of the Southeastern United States
Abstract
Thoughts of the area of the southeastern United States may conjure up images of a vast coastal plain with sediments of sand and silt and lowlands of rich farmland including cotton fields of the antebellum South and the tide lands with occasional swamplands and meandering large rivers increasing in elevation northwestward up to the Fall Line entering extensive evergreen and deciduous forests and nearing the ancient and heavily-eroded Appalachian Mountain front.
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 3. Oil and Gas Production in the United States
Abstract
After studying large oil and gas production maps of the entire United States for a while, certain patterns may start to emerge. It is obvious where the established oil and gas production is and where it is not. After more viewing, it may seem that oil and gas production trends are seen and the gaps between them result in questions as to why there is oil and gas found in some areas and not in others. Fig. 1.​1. The question as to why commercial accumulations of hydrocarbons exist in some areas and not in others is due to geologic and stratigraphic reasons. The reasons involve subsurface rock deformation and structure and the specific lithology and petrophysics of the possible reservoir quality rocks having favorable porosity and permeability encountered at depth. More wells will need to be drilled in non-producing areas to further test the current ideas. On the maps, oil production is usually represented in red, gas production is in green and dry holes are in gray.
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 4. Triassic Rift Basins in the Southeastern United States
Abstract
Convincing evidence of the existence of Triassic age rift or extension stretch basins is found in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The most notable rift basin feature is the Rome Trough that extends from eastern Pennsylvania southwest through West Virginia and into eastern Kentucky. Indications of extensions of the Rome Trough from basement faulting may be that the feature even reaches north to southern Ohio and south into Tennessee. The Rome Trough has been extensively drilled in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and the western edge in southwest Pennsylvania corresponds to highly naturally fractured areas with high oil and natural gas production rates of the very productive Marcellus shale play currently being exploited with the latest horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies.
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 5. Challenges and Logistics of Hydrocarbon Exploration in the Southeastern United States
Abstract
Most of the Southeastern United States area is far from established production; however, land lease prices may be favorable. Most of the eastern seaboard and much of the lower 48 states land mass is under-explored using oil and gas exploration drilling. The sedimentary sequence is thinner than the Gulf Coast and some reservoir quality rocks were probably subjected to fresh water invasion and flushing over time. In spite of these important issues, the author is optimistic and believes that some significant hydrocarbon accumulations may still remain awaiting discovery.
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 6. Oil and Gas Production in Virginia and Tennessee
Abstract
The fact that commercial oil and gas production exists in Virginia and Tennessee and even far western Maryland bodes well for possible oil and gas accumulations in the southeastern United States because the areas share similar stratigraphic and structural geology. The oil and gas fields already discovered in the western Appalachian Basin proper can serve as models or analogs to similar features being discovered elsewhere in the central and eastern parts of overlooked sedimentary basin features of the southern Appalachian Mountain system.
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 7. Possible Undiscovered Oil and Gas Accumulations and Documented Oil and Gas Shows in the Southeastern United States
Abstract
The majority of oil seeps in Georgia seem to follow a line from south of Augusta on the Savannah River, through Louisville, Sandersville, Wrightsville, lower Laurens County, Scotland and Hawkinsville, along the line separating the lower and upper coastal plain.
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 8. Historic COCORP 2D Seismic Survey Program in the Southeastern United States
Abstract
The COCORP 2D surface seismic data survey program was an inspiration to the author to produce this work. The COCORP data located in the state of Georgia is especially intriguing and thought-provoking as it appears to have imaged some large sub-surface structures that may include anticlines with essential four-way hydrocarbon trapping attributes that remain untested by the drill bit.
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 9. Georgia as a Central Oil and Gas Exploration Project Area
Abstract
In 1971, Corpus Christi, Texas geologist Richard H. Sams visited and examined the sites of eight hydrocarbon seeps in the state of Georgia and published his findings in a very informative and useful report that reviewed the same seeps documented 50 years before in the early part of the twentieth century. Sams did not visit the site of a ninth seep located near the town of Cedar Springs in Early County, Georgia in the far western part of the state. He clearly states in his report that the Cedar Springs seep was not visited because it was too far away from the other seeps that are located much farther east and closer to each other in the central part of Georgia south of the Fall Line. This is intriguing because the author was not aware of the existence of the Early County seep before purchasing a copy on eBay and then later reading the Sams report in April of 2015.
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 10. Gulf of Mexico Basin and Atlantic Coastal (East Coastal) Basins
Abstract
It is not readily apparent, unless one is used to looking at regional geology maps of the United States that show the many sedimentary basins throughout the country, that the well-known Gulf of Mexico Basin converges somewhere in Georgia and Florida. with the less known and far less publicized Atlantic (East) Coastal Basin of the southeast United States in the states of Florida and Georgia (Fig. 1.​1). It is also interesting to note that the Atlantic Coastal Basin, like the Gulf of Mexico Basin is very extensive and a large part extends offshore.
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 11. Nearest Oil and Gas Production to Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina
Abstract
Regarding North Carolina oil and gas occurrence; although natural gas and oil are known to occur in North Carolina, they are not currently produced commercially in the state. Additional work is needed to evaluate their economic value. Directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing may become more common in North Carolina as the economic benefits become more evident. Between 1925 and 1998, 128 petroleum exploration bore holes have been drilled in North Carolina. None were commercial. Recent exploration has been focused in Lee and Chatham counties. As of this writing two of these exploration wells remain under permit in Lee County but are not in production. The Deep River Coal Field is located in Chatham, Lee and Moore Counties, North Carolina. Oil bearing shales are exposed in the Deep River Valley. Oil and gas shows have been reported in wells drilled in Lee County, North Carolina such as the Butler # 3 well location.
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 12. Regional Geology, Oil and Gas Shows of Eastern Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Middle Florida
Abstract
Regional geology highlights indicate potential in Cretaceous and Paleozoic rocks. The Coastal Plain and Piedmont of the southeast United States are under-explored. Stratigraphic overlaps due to progression and regression of the sea probably produced strand line stratigraphic traps easily missed by earlier exploration methods of sparse drilling and low-resolution surface 2D seismic data profiling. There is strong evidence of some large untested structures near and in the Piedmont ahead of the Appalachian Mountains including northeast Georgia imaged by the COCORP seismic survey. The prospective formations are the Vicksburg, Wilcox, Ripley, Eutaw and Tuscaloosa carbonates and sandstones. Also, the Floyd and Conasauga shales and conglomerate sequences from the eroding Appalachian Mountains are prospective. In Georgia, oil and gas shows were reported in Miocene, Wilcox and Eutaw sands. Several oil seeps are known to exist and others have been reported. Over 80,000 sq. miles of sparsely drilled real estate exist in Georgia and Florida alone. Oil and gas shows were encountered in a central North Carolina well in recent years located in Lee County. Gas shows were reported in a well drilled in Mathews County, Virginia in the 1920’s near the seacoast. Coal exists in northwest Georgia and was mined during the Civil War and again as recently as the 1970’s – 1980’s. There are also coal bed natural gas (CBNG) possibilities. Fig. 4.​1.
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 13. The Historic Jay and Sunniland Oil Fields of Florida
Abstract
As of this writing there are only two oil-producing areas in Florida. One is in far southern Florida near the Everglades, and comprised of 14 separate fields, and the other is in the far western part of the state in the panhandle comprised of seven separate fields. The south Florida fields are located in Lee, Hendry, Collier, and Dade Counties. Florida’s first oil field is the Sunniland field located in Collier County and was discovered in 1943. It has produced over 18 million barrels of oil. Later, 13 more field discoveries were made and lie along a northwest-southeast trend through Lee, Hendry, Collier, and Dade Counties. Although the fields are relatively small, production is significant. Together, the three Felda fields (West Felda, Mid-Felda, and Sunoco Felda) in Hendry County have produced over 54 million barrels of oil (Fig. 1.​1).
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 14. Proposed Regional Reconnaissance 2D Seismic Survey Program
Abstract
A reconnaissance 2D reflection surface seismic grid of very long lines of at least 50 miles each is needed to high grade existing drilling prospects and locate new drilling prospects. 3D surface seismic is not as useful for reconnaissance and regional work. 3D seismic surveys usually cover much smaller land areas and are considerably more expensive than 2D data. 3D surface seismic coverage will become applicable once new and commercially viable field discoveries are made and reservoir economics are considered and developments wells are being planned. The 2D surface seismic that appears to exist in the southeast United States is low resolution and fold and very limited in total individual line length. The surveys were typically designed and acquired for drilling prospect delineation by medium and large size operators and oil and gas exploration companies that have explored and drilled in the region. An exception is the COCORP research program mentioned in Chap. 8. Most of the oil company data is proprietary and not part of the public domain; although some of it, the majority of which being 2D, has probably been released by the owners to the market and is available through seismic data brokers for a license fee per linear or square mile (Figs. 14.2, and 14.3).
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 15. Offshore Southeastern United States and OCS Oil and Gas Potential
Abstract
In the late 1970’s the United States Atlantic coast was divided up into four (4) areas by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and include North Atlantic (1), Mid Atlantic (2), South Atlantic (3) and Gulf of Mexico (4).
Robert J. Brewer
Chapter 16. Prospective Areas for New Oil and Gas Exploration and Current and Future Developments
Abstract
The Marcellus shale resource play is being actively drilled and developed in western Virginia and western Maryland. The Conasauga and Floyd shale sequences/equivalents exist in Georgia. The Floyd/Neal shale sequence is productive in Alabama. East Tennessee and northern Alabama produce oil and gas and need more exploration. The Chattanooga shale in Tennessee is a prolific oil source rock. Unconventional shale gas potential from the Chattanooga shale in Tennessee is a strong possibility.
Robert J. Brewer
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Hydrocarbon Potential in Southeastern United States
verfasst von
Robert J. Brewer
Copyright-Jahr
2019
Electronic ISBN
978-3-030-00218-3
Print ISBN
978-3-030-00216-9
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00218-3